1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network printer management and, more particularly, to a system of hardware, software and technical, business and marketing methods that enables printer and copier vendors to outsource network printing for mid size and small organizations and departments of large organizations using a combination of local and remote monitoring tools.
2. Description of the Background
The laser printer market includes computer printer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark and Epson, as well as high-end copier manufacturers, such as Xerox and Ricoh. Companies such as Canon maintain a strong presence in both the laser printer market and the copier market.
The computer printer oriented companies have a low-margin, high-volume channel oriented sales approach. The copier oriented companies tend to have a high-margin lower-volume direct sales force oriented approach. There is a trend in both camps to find a median position, and the high end is moving down and the low end up. Independent dealers that represent these companies tend to follow their company's models. Copier oriented dealers tend to be low volume high margin operations, and focus almost exclusively on the corporate copier/fax market. They tend to have little or no network and laser printer support experience, and a higher cost model, including higher-cost sales and service personnel. A substantial portion of their profits come from hardware sales and leasing. Printer oriented dealers tend to be lower-cost higher-volume operations with little expertise in dealing with high-cost copiers. They usually focus on supporting laser printers attached to computer networks. Their profits come from the sale of toner and other supplies and service. Both ends of the spectrum face margin pressure, and one solution for high-end manufacturers has been outsourcing. By engaging in long term outsourcing contracts with Fortune 1000 companies, these companies lock out the competition. Outsourcing has not spread among the low-end dealers (both laser oriented dealers and copier oriented dealers) because they lack the marketing infrastructure and technical networking know-how to make outsourcing work. The lower-end vendors could greatly benefit from outsourcing arrangements: they could lock in customers, lock out competition, increase margins by providing services. This would require a significantly different (more economical) business model plus the underlying system of hardware and software to implement it.
Existing network technology offers a path to accomplishing the foregoing. A primary goal of local area network (LAN) technology is to share all resources that are distributed across the network. Existing network software helps network administrators to accomplish this purpose. For example, Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0 allows administrators to give anyone in their organization access to resources available on a Windows NT Server system. There is one resource that remains very difficult to manage. Specifically, printer management in networks is still an elusive goal. This is primarily due to the complexities in managing the diverse operating systems of the client computers, and the numerous printer drivers required for each different type of printer and for each different operating system, and the management problems created by a mixture of end-user attached and network attached printers. Printers that are attached directly to an end-user's computer are not easily installed, configured or removed. In order to install and use a new printer on an end-user's computer, the device driver must be installed from the computer itself, the port must be configured and the device mode settings (such as page size) must be manually set.
There are numerous obstacles faced in central printer management. Within a typical LAN a plurality of client terminals are connected to respective network Servers via any of a number of different communication topologies inclusive of 10-base T, 100-base T, Sonet, Token Ring, etc. Clients terminals might be configured to communicate with their assigned Servers via any of a number of different communication protocols such as IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, etc. In addition, Clients might be running any of various operating systems such as MacIntosh, Windows 95, 98 or Windows NT Workstation. Moreover, any number of different printers may be connected to the LAN, each requiring a different printer driver specially configured depending on the above constraints. If there are 100 client stations each with printers attached, and there are 5 servers, then there would need to be 500 printer configurations defined and maintained. The management of client printer configurations has traditionally been a manual process and all printer drivers must be manually installed and network connections manually established. This is accomplished by the administrator physically working with each client station connected to the LAN, and the impracticality of the situation becomes apparent.
There are a number of prior art references that are generally concerned with printer resource management.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,015 to Martin et al. shows a networked system using a host computer that can be utilized by a user or a Network Administrator to “read” the contents of each printer memory connected to the network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,088 to Nogay shows a method for optimal use of print resources during the preparation a print job for printing. During the creation of a spool file the invention logs data on print resource usage (such as font types and frequency) in a print job in an accounting file. Upon review of this data, it modifies the print resource usage data in the accounting file as necessary to optimize print resource usage. The spool file and the accounting file are then sent to a printer driver. The printer driver knows how to use the print resource data in the accounting file to optimize the print resource usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,262 to Barrett et al. shows a print interface device between a local area network (LAN) and a printer and which can output a log file. The device includes a LAN interface for receiving image forming jobs and command signals from the LAN, and a peripheral interface for outputting image forming jobs to the printer. The network device further includes a storage device that stores a log file of print jobs received from the LAN. The device includes a processor that updates the stored log file based on the image forming jobs received from the LAN. The processor is capable of formatting the log file into a print job and outputting the formatted log file to the printer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,069 to Cavill shows a client/server printer driver system including a client-side subsystem capable of dividing the print job into portions to be processed client-side.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,035 to Golub et al. shows a system for managing input/output (I/O) resources in a computer system. The system includes a hardware resource manager which tracks the use of the I/O resources. In addition, the hardware resource manager (HRM) can allocate the resources between device drivers and provide a standard implementation to be used by device drivers. The HRM manages resources, arbitrates requests for print resources, and eliminates bottlenecks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,493 to Davidson et al. shows a printing system having a host computer and a printer in which the printer acquires print job accounting information and communicates it to the host computer via NPAP messages. A host computer downloads print job data to the printer through a communications port on the printer (i.e., either a parallel port, serial port, or network port), and as the printer prints the print job that it received from the host computer, the printer temporarily stores job accounting information. At the end of the print job, the printer communicates that job accounting information back to armed host computers via a bi-directional communications port, including typical information such as: the job identifier number, job processing time, number of sheets of paper from each paper source, number of impressions from each paper source (either one-sided or two-sided impressions), the port identifier, the network user name, the name of the print job (as specified), and the printer's serial number.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,135 to Webb et al. shows bidirectional communications between a host computer and a selected printer connected to the host, to provide a user of the host with access to a substantially real-time, visual and functional replica of the operator panel of the selected printer. A user at the host computer may also visually monitor the status of multiple printers at the same time from the same host display.
Although all of the above-referenced patents suggest printer management in a LAN context, they are meant to attach to a single printer to monitor datastream going to the printer. They do not teach or suggest residency in a PC and monitoring all printers to which that PC prints. In addition, some require brand-specific hardware. Thus, they are incapable of adapting the printer monitoring mechanics for an outsourcing model in which print control is web-enabled to provide marketing and analysis information to vendors, and is hardware-vendor neutral. It would be greatly advantageous to provide Assessment Software that places full printer management information onto the web, inclusive of the actual cost per page for the customer, thereby facilitating a business method that outsources the customer's printing on a cost per page basis.